Emergence (Fox Meridian Book 5) (2 page)

‘I do e-profiling,’ Gaby went on, ‘and other data collection stuff. I’ve told them we’ll eventually get replaced by AIs, and I’ve started learning to handle more investigative work. Electronic crime is big business, and it’s a far harder job training an infomorph to handle that than it is to get them data mining for personal details.’

‘I agree,’ Kit said. She was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, at Fox’s feet, a white-clad vulpine pixie. ‘I am learning to do criminology, and I have a natural predisposition for psychological profiling, but it is hard work. I prefer to let Fox do what she does best while I concentrate on providing her with the information she needs.’

‘And she’s good at it,’ Fox said, ‘but she sells herself short on the investigative aspects. Hell,
she
turned a cold case into a hunt for a current serial killer.’

‘Oh?’ Pascal said. It was a hint to tell the story: there was a sparkle in the elder Deveraux’s eyes.

‘It’s not exactly pleasant subject matter for an evening with my boyfriend’s parents.’

‘Pfft!’ Monique said, waving a hand dismissively. ‘Cop house. I’m used to hearing horrible things and this time I know there’s a happy ending.’

Fox gave a little shrug. ‘I wouldn’t exactly call it happy, but it was satisfying. Um, I’d closed one case, but we had a difficult culprit. Rich, connected, and there was every possibility that he could skate, or keep the trial blocked long enough that he died before coming to trial. He made me an offer. His granddaughter had been murdered, tortured to death, and if I agreed to look at the case, he agreed not to put undue obstacles in the way of his trial.’

‘I don’t like making deals with criminals,’ Pascal said.

‘Neither do I, but… Harper August is a complicated one. Heart in the right place, but methods went through questionable and out the other side. And then I saw what had been done to his granddaughter… Seriously, even if it hadn’t been maybe the only way to clear the decks, I’d have wanted to look into the case. So, we got the case files from NAPA and I set Kit loose on them. Basic stuff. Profile the victim and those who were around her at the time of her death. Two days later, Kit had found two more murders with suspiciously similar MOs. I told her to keep going. We ended up with six bodies in New York, two in Cape Town, and another three in Berlin.’

‘Which was where I came in,’ Jason said. ‘We were expecting another victim in Germany, but the killer had returned to New York.’

‘This is the LifeFit case!’ Gaby said. ‘It was all over the news. Wasn’t the killer eventually apprehended in Jamaica?’

‘Actually, he was apprehended in mid-Atlantic,’ Fox said. ‘He’d done a runner, after kidnapping his ex-business partner. I caught up with the yacht–’

‘By jumping an aqua-sled onto the back of it during a hurricane,’ Jason put in.

‘Tropical storm,’ Fox corrected. ‘Took him down, went on to Jamaica, and Jason flew out himself to handle the extradition.’

‘And found her lying on the forward deck of the yacht in a swimsuit made mostly of string, sunbathing.’

Gaby and her mother were giggling. Pascal was looking bemused. ‘You jumped a sled onto the aft deck of a moving yacht?’

‘Jason wasn’t especially impressed,’ Fox said, ‘but I managed it. I’m kind of lucky at doing really stupid things that shouldn’t work.’

‘I thought dropping out of Pythia’s vertol hurt more, actually,’ Kit said. ‘We couldn’t land, so we had to be dropped out of the rear door from above the waves.’

‘Tell that to my elbows. But the point here is, Kit found those links by dredging through LifeWeb, finding mentions on memorial pages, friends of friends of friends who thought the similarity was odd. Without her, I’d never have tracked the guy down. That was the second time she’s figured something out that I doubt anyone else could have found. I just can’t talk about the first time. It’s got some… sensitivities.’

Jason nodded. ‘It has. But you remember that mall rampage in February? That was part of the pattern.’

‘I had help with that,’ Kit said. ‘A friend provided me with some information which pointed me the right way.’

Fox smirked. ‘Her boyfriend.’ Kit’s cheeks coloured.

Gaby beamed. ‘You’re
so human
, Kit. The infomorphs I generally work with are a bit… stiff. You… You get embarrassed!’

‘You will be used to class threes,’ Kit said. ‘They can show emotion, but they don’t really understand it. Often they learn to simply avoid it so as not to give offence. The problem is compounded since they don’t always realise they’ve upset someone. I have the same emotional capacity as a human. And I have an owner who is happy to allow me to express those emotions and allow me to develop them. I’m barely a year old and my creator is very happy with my emotional development.’

‘Teresa Martins designed her,’ Jason said. ‘Close your mouth, Gaby, you’ll catch flies. Yes, Fox knows Teresa and Jackson Martins. I suppose I do now. We flew in on a MarTech shuttle.’

‘You rescued Miss Martins from terrorists in Dallas,’ Pascal said. ‘I didn’t remember until I did a little looking. Had to know who it was that had finally hooked my romance-impaired son.’

Fox shrugged. ‘It’s public record.’

‘Not something you like talking about, I’d imagine.’

‘No… It’s easier now. It’s been three years and… Well, if Dallas hadn’t happened, I’d probably be married and I wouldn’t have been free to hook your romance-impaired son.’

‘I’d like to change the subject now,’ Jason grumbled. ‘I think I’m being ganged up on.’

Gaby giggled. ‘Mom’s already done baby pictures, so I think your invisible love life is next on the embarrassment list.’

~~~

‘Of course, you can’t afford a house like this on a cop’s salary,’ Pascal said. ‘Well, on an honest cop’s salary. Monique did accounting. Had several big-name clients in the media and old-money sets. So, we retired with enough to get ourselves a nice house in a nice area.’

‘It
is
a nice house in a nice area,’ Fox agreed. ‘You’re right beside the park here, right?’

‘We are. I take a run there three times a week. Like to keep myself in some sort of shape.’ And, as far as Fox could tell, he had. His hair gave away his age more than anything else.

‘What about your parents, Fox?’ Monique asked.

‘Farming. I come from Topeka in the Kansas Belt. Mom and Dad got into politics after Dad retired, but Dad still has a parcel of land he tends. They get a lot of their vegetables from it and sell some through the local market. To be honest, they didn’t much like it when I joined the Army and we didn’t talk for ten years. This summer they came to a policing conference in New York and we reconnected.’

‘Oh! Wouldn’t you rather have been with them tomorrow?’

Fox grinned. ‘No. You don’t talk for a decade… Um, we’re still working the bugs out of the relationship. Their politics are a little different from mine and we’d have ended up arguing. Besides, their marriage went through a bit of a rocky patch recently and
they
reconnected when I was there in the summer. I kind of hope they want to spend Christmas together and alone this year, even if I refuse to think about what they might get up to.’

‘I get the feeling,’ Pascal said, ‘that you played some part in fixing their marriage.’

‘Uh, well… Yes. I, um, gave them a little jolt.’

‘Detective and marriage counsellor. Quite the résumé resume. You said they were in politics in the Kansas Belt. So they are involved in the local policing business?’

‘Very. That’s where our politics differ. I voted against it, and they’re involved in setting up their end of it in Topeka. Actually, I
will
see them early next year. Combined business and personal trip, sort of. Palladium is training their police force and providing investigative consultancy, and I’m taking the excuse to go visit them.’

‘I admit that I do not understand how a country can operate on this delegated voting system. It seems far too close to anarchy.’

‘Not getting any arguments from me. I think the principle is fine, like with the local policing initiative, but in practice… I think we’ve gone too far. RFQ is still a representative democracy, right?’

Pascal nodded. ‘West Canada has followed the American model, of course, but we stay with elected representatives.’ He sighed. ‘You are right, of course. Some middle position is probably the right place to be.’

‘Europe and Britain have something of a middle-ground system,’ Jason said. ‘Elected representatives to handle the majority of business, large issues handled by direct voting, and individuals free to vote directly on specific issues if they feel the need. No system is perfect, and likely never will be.’

‘True,’ Monique said, ‘and since we’ve started on politics and it is almost Christmas Day, I think it’s time for bed. If we’re not tucked up soon, Santa won’t come.’

Gaby giggled beside her on the sofa. ‘Mom, if Santa existed, he’d have had to move house by now. Too little snow at the North Pole.’

‘So you say, but if I can’t have a second childhood at my age, when can I?’

25
^th
December.

Fox opened her eyes and remained still, revelling in the warmth of the thick duvet and the warm body pressed against her back. Jason had one arm hooked around her waist and, from the feel of it, his own body had recovered from the bout of lovemaking which had come after the whispered ‘Merry Christmas’ exultations. She wanted him again, wanted his muscled body sliding against hers, his slightly feminine lips teasing her into a frenzy… But it could wait until he woke naturally.

Someone else was up, and Fox suspected that Pascal and Monique were down in the kitchen. The sound of Christmas music was barely audible, but Fox could hear it drifting up from below. She could not really remember the last time she had celebrated what you would call a family Christmas. It was probably before she had left to join the Army. If things remained smooth with her parents, she decided, then she would be in Topeka for the next one.

The air in the room smelled crisp, the kind of cool, slightly biting feeling you got on snow days. When coffee scent intruded into it, Fox developed an element of conflict: there was hot coffee downstairs, and a hot man in the bed with her. The dilemma was resolved just before she tried slipping out of bed when Jason’s hand slid over her stomach and cupped her breast. Fox smiled and reached back, finding him hard and ready. Words seemed unnecessary; she tilted her hips back, slid her leg up, guided him in, and let out a slow moan as he filled her…

Fox’s eyes closed again as he took her, slowly, achingly. Her hips rolled almost of their own volition. She bit her lip and wished he would increase the pace, but at the same time hoped he would not. Lazy, Christmas-morning sex that teased them both, pushing them ever higher until she was whimpering into her pillow and his face was buried against her neck, and there was no way either of them could keep the tension from snapping. She arched, driving him deeper, and his hand tightened, fingers digging into her breast. There was that moment of exquisite denial, a near-painful peak of pressure waiting to break through, and Fox dissolved into the explosion of climax, feeling him release as her muscles tightened around him.

‘There’s coffee,’ she whispered when her vision was clear. She could still feel him inside her. The twitches sent shivers up her spine with every little move and she knew that his withdrawal would be a delightful agony.

‘Far be it from me to keep you from coffee, mon chère,’ Jason said softly, but his hand remained fixed over her breast.

‘I think I need a quick shower first.’

‘Then it is most fortunate that all the bedrooms have a shower room en suite.’

‘You’ll need to let go.’

‘Non. I don’t want to.’ Fox grinned and squeezed her inner muscles around the thickness of him before grinding her behind against his hips, and Jason groaned. ‘You are an evil woman. Torturer.’ He slid his hand away, down her ribs, across her hip – and the sensation of that was almost enough to make her relent – and gave her a pat on the rump. ‘Go then, take your shower.’

She slid away from him, whimpering at the sense of loss, and then slipped out from beneath the duvet. The bedroom was cool and, on a whim, Fox walked to the window and looked out. ‘Looks like we’ve got… maybe twenty centimetres of snow. If I couldn’t smell coffee, I’d get back in bed, but it does look pretty. No one’s disturbed it yet.’

Kit appeared beside Fox, looking out at the snow scene. ‘I have seen photographs, of course, but I’ve never seen actual snow.’

‘Perhaps a little education is required,’ Jason said. ‘You should take Kit outside, Fox.’

‘That would be excellent!’ Kit exclaimed, beaming at Fox.

Fox looked out at the powdery whiteness. ‘Thanks, Jason. Don’t go thinking
you’re
getting any more sex before I leave.’

~~~

Fox had not brought a lot of clothing for a two-day stay, but she did have something for most of the likely weather conditions. The sweater dress, leggings, and boots combo was warm enough, especially since the outside temperature was just above freezing.

Wrapping her arms around her waist, Fox stepped up to the edge of the back porch. The sky was a clear, pale blue overhead and the snow was, appropriately enough, deep and crisp and even. ‘It won’t last,’ she said. ‘The sun’ll start melting it when it gets higher.’

Kit stepped up onto the surface of the gathered snow, not sinking in despite wearing high-heeled boots. ‘It has a sort of grainy quality I did not expect from the photographs. I admit that snow is not something I have extensively researched.’

‘I can tell,’ Fox said, grinning, and took a couple of steps off the porch.

‘Oh! It makes a crunchy sound and you sink into it.’ Kit dropped through the snow until she thought she was probably level with the ground.

‘It’s basically a lot of snowflakes piled up on top of each other, but it changes as it warms and cools. The flakes meld and you get a more solid material after a while. I saw this documentary once about it. Kind of fascinating in a nerdy way. And, look at this.’ Fox stepped back out of her footprints and looked down into the hole so that Kit could see.